BACK TO SCHOOL

I was asked to make a presentation in front of my son's class this morning on the subject of immigration. I jumped at the chance. I am an immigrant. I may not be typical of those that come to America to live but I have been through the same process nonetheless. I have not experienced the same hardships as those who come here from very different cultures and with little knowledge of English but I do have a wealth of funny stories that happened to me on the road to becoming an American.

My journey began in 1996 when I suddenly woke up one morning in the Center of London, with a strong desire to move across the Atlantic to New York City. I dismissed this ridiculous idea and carried on my normal schedule but that yearning feeling inside of my head continued to grow, enticing me to the Big Apple . Some three months later, I had secured a great job, applied successfully for a three year visa and had packed my bags and was gone from London. I was here in New York City.

I explained to my son's class the differences between how I came to The United States and how previous generations had struggled to get here. The time period they are studying involved mass immigration by boat, landing at Ellis Island where Citizenship was automatic on condition of passing a basic health test. As long as the immigrant didn't die during the health interview or cause a major epidemic in the waiting room, then entry to America was granted. With a stamp that provided automatic citizenship it wasn't rare for the newly landed to hug the immigration officer on duty on completion of the process. I arrived at J.F.K on an American Airlines flight from London Heathrow at the same time as an Air Jamaica flight from Kingston and an Air India flight from what was then called Bombay. I waited three hours in line to be seen by an immigration officer who was so rude to me that all I wanted to do was turn around and go back to England.

Once on American soil and cleared of all red tape and formalities the new immigrants of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries usually moved into squalid conditions in a neighborhood that had familiar people already there from the "Old Country." This usually involved staying with relatives who had made the move previously. Many were crammed into tight living conditions. Most jobs available were manual labor with very long hours and little pay. Times were very hard. After I cleared immigration and collected my luggage I was picked up by stretch limousine, taken into Manhattan to a five star deluxe hotel where I stayed for a week , and then went to work two days later at an infamous Investment Bank in Midtown. I had some family living here but they never offered that I should move in. It didn't cross my mind either. I moved into a swanky Upper West Side doorman building after my stay at the hotel came to an end. All accommodation for the first year was covered by my employee as they had invited me to move far away from home and so gave me a very generous package.

Large scale immigration the past two centuries has had such a profound affect on the fabric of American society. New York City is still home to a vast majority who were born outside of this country. In the past it added such a flavor to the composition of its population. New York was not really a melting plot as nationalities tended to live amongst each other and kept themselves to themselves. It was more like a tossed salad with various ingredients lying separately brought together by a common dressing that is American citizenship and the freedom and opportunity that came along with it. By the time I arrived the immigration process was much different. Manhattan has become much more elitist and many newcomers posses amazing qualifications in their field. Nowadays, New York now attracts the creme de la creme in most white collar professions with a special emphasis on Finance, Law, and The Media. Long gone are the days of mass unskilled labor arriving looking for work. There is very little industry left in New York City. The factories have closed their doors here forever. Only in the service industry do the poor and unqualified still fill the vacancies in what is perceived to be the bottom of the to-tum pole.

Being back at school and standing in front of a bunch of eager to learn kids addressing the subject of immigration, I felt a bit of a fraud. Compared to what they are learning, I have had no hardship at all. What I do share with most who have come here is that we all feel that this is the best place on earth to live and raise a family disregarding whatever it is we have had to go through to make it here!